Panda loach success!

[atmichaels]

Just found this little guy in my tank. I'm super excited!!!


It's just under 1 cm.

Austen

[Diana]

Great!

[olly]

Great success! Congrats! Thanks for sharing.
just one baby or a group?

[mikev]

Congratulations!

First in the US, I think! Keep this going, best wishes for many more babies.

[NancyD]

Wow! Congrats! Please tell us again all your tank info. Keep it up!

[atmichaels]

I have only seen the one. Totally my fault as I don't have them in their own tank. I was planning on moving the group into their own 40 long river this summer to attempt breeding. Right now they're in a 20H.

Tank parameters:
Tap water ( treated with Prime) with pH of 7.2-7.4 I do a 50% weekly change to keep nitrates down ( I have a tendency to over feed)
Tds ~150
Unheated, temp varies from 70-74 f
Substrate: Sand and gravel substrate with some smooth river rocks
Filtration: fluval C4, marineland 75 powerhead with a sponge prefilter, ATI hydro sponge air-driven
Lighting: dual fluorescent, med-high light

Tank mates: ancistrus sp(4)- who I'm sure are eating any eggs they can find; scleromystax barbatus- who would finish off any remains eggs or surviving fry ( these have been moved to another tank); RCS; ramshorn snails.

Feeding: plecocaine, NLS Thera A, cobalt flake-ground, frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp, decapped brine shrimp eggs.

Austen

[mikev]

how many adults?

as for the tankmates: I don't think ancistrus are all that bad.... barbatus are much more of a threat and in fact shrimp is quite bad for hillstream fry too.

[atmichaels]

I have 4 adults. My eyes (and camera) aren't that great so I have trouble distinguishing the males and females based on Ott's description. Near as I can tell I have 3 females and 1 male, possibly 2 and 2. One female is very gravid at the moment.


Rather than moving them to the 40, I'm working on clearing out the tank mates. I guess they got tired of waiting for me to be ready for them to spawn.

I'm also hoping there are more fry in there that are still hidden in the gravel, plants, etc.

I wasn't aware that shrimp were hard on hillies (so thanks for that), they never bothered the scleromystax eggs that were laid every week. Trying to get them all out without doing a tear down will be fun I'll have to try some traps.

Austen

[mikev]

Shrimp (at least cherry, I would think RCS is no different) is quite capable of catching even small swimming fry, like rainbow fry. Small fry on the ground is definitely in danger.

Species that produce large fry (this would include pseudogastros or erromyzons) may be ok, but panda asaik produces small fry initially.... so I'd guess them to be the food. I've never seen shrimp being interested in cory eggs (sticky surface?) or for that matter rainbow eggs either (I kept threadfins with shrimp, no problem collecting eggs). ..now, eggs on the ground probably would be eaten.

I have 4 adults. My eyes (and camera) aren't that great so I have trouble distinguishing the males and females based on Ott's description.

I really must sex mine.... I have 8 adults, simply never got to looking at them carefully.....

[atmichaels]

Short video from this morning

http://youtu.be/fTCLduNNsVs

Austen

[mikev]

Very nice. There is something small darting to the left of the stone about 25 seconds into the movie... another fry or just a shrimp?

[atmichaels]

Sadly, just a shrimp. I'm not giving up looking for more fry just yet though.

[mikev]

Single species tanks help if you want more fry.....

My problem is that some ss tanks end up filled with fry and then juveniles and then there is no more breeding

[NancyD]

Do you have a sponge over your filter intake? Check carefully if not & look for fry! I'm not familiar with a C4, is it a basic HOB?

Thanks for repeating you info, it may help others of us loach lovers & hopeful breeders. Continued good luck & thanks for the video. If you can please tell us how you're sexing them. I don't have pandas yet but they're oh so tempting!

[atmichaels]

Nancy, a C4 is a HOB and there is a sponge over the intake. I did check the filter just to be sure though! No luck there, however, I did see two fry tonight! There's a good portion of the back of the tank that I can't see and several hiding spots so I'm hopeful there are more that just haven't shown themselves yet. Short video of the (now two!) fry:

http://youtu.be/7pyAFug0CYc

Austen